From: Ryan Leavengood Date: 2006-05-23T00:16:04+09:00 Subject: Re: Brite - A ruby compiler for the .NET platform On 5/22/06, Kris Leech wrote: > I found a one page html page detailing how to decrypt a CIL back to > source like you can with Java bytecode... Its just too easy to do! > Getting a key out of binary can be made to be difficult, not impossible. > With bytecode its just all to easy. > REally we need encrypted ruby code, but there seems to be resistance to > the idea in the ruby community... In some sense I suppose encrypting code is against the spirit of Ruby, but from my perspective the problem is more of practicality. The basic issue is that if the computer can decrypt the code to run it, then someone else can as well. You will have to embed the key somewhere in the binary, and it would be trivial to run the interpreter in a debugger to see where the key was hidden. This is the same problem big media is running against with their incessant and obsessive fight against supposed "copyright infringement" with DRM technologies. At some point the data has to be unencrypted for humans to see, read or hear it. Unless of course we all have special chips embedded in our brains that allow us to only see or hear content specifically licensed to us. That is the next logical step. Be prepared for the introduction to Congress of the Omnibus Verifying Entertainment Revenue with Licensing Or Restriction of Data Act (aka the OVERLORD Act) sometime in 2008. Your chip awaits. Ryan